David Swanson's Blog, page 209
July 26, 2011
When David Wu Sat Down at My Table in Starbucks
Congressman David Wu is now resigning in a sex scandal. I have no idea re his possible guilt. But he sure did make a lousy congressman, something that somehow never creates a scandal. Back on March 10, 2010, I blogged the following:
Liveblog: Vote to End the War on Afghanistan Today
8:28 a.m. Congressman Kucinich still does not know what time the debate and vote will be. I just saw Rep Raul Grijalva plodding down the sidewalk looking rather glum. No doubt he'll vote for ending the war and plan to vote for funding it next month if he's needed. Obviously his soul, if he has one left, is not needed in this town.
Debt Is A Crisis
What if the imminent banging of Uncle Sam's skull into the looming debt ceiling isn't a crisis, but the very concept of debt is? The debt ceiling has been lifted numerous times without fanfare or fainting spells. All we face this week is a fabricated opportunity to gut social programs and trusts under the guise of a phony crisis and a discourse constricted to exclude taxation of the wealthy or cuts to the war machine.
July 25, 2011
If Bush or Giuliani Had Been Stoltenberg
The murder spree in Norway was apparently the work of a Norwegian, not a group of foreigners, and for various other reasons the comparison is not exact. Nonetheless, it's tempting to wonder how many people would still be alive today if George W. Bush or Rudy Giuliani had spoken after the 9-11 attacks as Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg just did.
You'll recall that Bush immediately spoke of a "war against terrorism," claimed to have been attacked for being a beacon of freedom, announced that we were all filled with anger, and decreed that we would make no distinction between terrorists and "those who harbored them." "The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" he promised.
Even Birds Have Withdrawn From Afghanistan
Comparing the brain sizes of migratory birds and U.S. presidents may not help explain this one. Birds have been avoiding Afghanistan for some years now. Afghans with higher educations have been leaving for decades. War profiteers, and occupation profiteers, and "reconstruction" profiteers seem to know their way out. But imperial rulers, whether British or Soviet or U.S., seem utterly incapable of withdrawing other people's kids from Afghan wars until no other option remains.
July 22, 2011
Afghan Judges Accuse U.S. of War Crimes
I recently sat down for 90 minutes to speak with six Afghan judges, all of them women, and an English-Dari interpreter, a man. They spoke to me as individuals. They aren't preparing any investigations or indictments. The relevance of their being judges is that they know the law. They've studied international law, and they were visiting the United States to learn about our legal and political systems. They believe the United States is guilty of war crimes.
July 21, 2011
July 20, 2011
Our Schools Look Like Our Government
A government that works for Wall Street and a war machine will sooner or later create schools that work for the same ends.
Here's a vicious cycle: rather than funding good schools, we fund the military and its recruiters. Then we lower the qualifications for teachers as long as the applicants have participated in wars. We funnel the same "Troops to Teachers" applicants into "public charter schools" too, even though we're paying them public dollars. And we move the whole program from the Department of Education to the Department of "Defense". That was President Barack Obama's idea. Do you like it? Pretty creative, huh? One step ahead of those teapartiers!
Balance the Budget on the Backs of Billionaires
By David Swanson, RootsAction.org
The wealthiest nation on earth is not actually obliged to starve our senior citizens. We don't need a military 670% more expensive than the next largest one on earth. We don't need to fund health insurance corporations instead of healthcare. And we don't need tax breaks for billionaires. In fact, we don't need billionaires. That's the message RootsAction is taking to Congress.
